On the night of March 14, 2019, alone, more than 3,000 militants of the ISIS (an international terrorist group prohibited in Russia) and other Muslim radicals left the battle zone and surrendered of their own accord. According to the commanders of the Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is part of the US-led “Western coalition”, they are fighting against the remnants of groups numbering from 500 to 800 terrorists in the final stage of the offensive on Al-Baghuz Fawqani. The problem is that many captives find their way to other potentially explosive areas of Eurasia afterwards.

The active onslaught on the town began on the night of March 10. The troops do not move in the dark: the coalition’s aviation and artillery attack the strongholds and positions of the adversary virtually non-stop. Priority targets are warehouses carrying ammunition, all vehicles and certain reinforced firing points. The offensive takes place during the day, with massive support from artillery and combat helicopters. The progress is very slow, since the entire area is planted with mines, which are the main cause of losses among the coalition troops.

By now, terrorists have been driven to the eastern bank of the Euphrates almost outside the town and are offering resistance on a strip of up to 2 km wide and 5 km long, reaching the border with Iraq. Their positions are also under intense fire from the cannon and missile artillery of the Syrian government troops that are on the right (western) bank of the river.

ISIS militants are fighting relentlessly, but increasingly often small groups or individuals secretively cross the firing line between strikes in order to surrender. They are then evacuated from the battle zone to special filtration camps (usually in Iraq).

The influential daily newspaper Yeni Safak (New Dawn), which is close to the Turkish ruling circles, has published a report about CIA servicemen being involved in hiding ISIS militants from justice and transferring them from Syria and Iraq to other hot spots on the globe. Citing anonymous sources, the Turkish publication writes that US officers recently interrogated over 2,000 militants who had fought for terrorists, after which about 150 out of them received emigration documents and left for an unknown destination.

In the past, filtration camps also existed in the center of the Syrian province of Deir Ez-Zor, the newspaper reports. The desert areas where they were located had been thoroughly cleansed, with local population, mostly tribes, deported to other districts. This, for example, was done during the Western coalition’s fight for Raqqa, where several tens of thousands of rebels were concentrated. And the fate of the thousands that survived is unknown.

It is during this period, the newspaper points out, that the secret reservations were visited by representatives of the Israeli, French and British special services, who selected some prisoners, provided them with IDs and immigration documents and let them leave for other countries via Iraq. The first reports about the arrival of up to 700 active ISIS members (mostly, propaganda and military specialists) in the northern areas of Afghanistan appeared in print in the autumn 2017, right about the time when ISIS was defeated in Raqqa. Militants were brought to Iraq and other Arab countries by heavy aircraft of the US Air Force.

It is already known that after the defeat in Mosul in Iraq, Raqqa and Daraa in Syria and elsewhere, hundreds of militants found shelter not only in Afghanistan, but also in Libya, Algeria, Egypt, Yemen, Indonesia and China. Their secretive evacuation from Iraq and Syria could be organized only by an interested government with unlimited transportation, organizational and financial resources.

In the past, reports about such activities on the part of the US were few and timid, with references to “third-party sources” and anxious waiting for a response from the authorities, but the publication in the influential Turkish newspaper testifies that such efforts of the American special services are based on forward planning.

And no matter how much the Americans try to disguise themselves as peacekeeping monks, the subversive activities of their special services in crisis-ridden areas are coming to light and becoming public knowledge.